The SMS group has partnered with Big River Steel to build an eco-friendly steel mill in Mississippi County, Ark. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on Sept. 22. SMS will be responsible for the supply of the entire plant technology, including electrical and automation equipment and environmental systems. The new mill’s product range will be focused on demanding steels, such as tube grades for pipeline construction, silicon steels for electrical applications and AHSS (advanced high-strength steels) grades for the automotive industry.

For the first construction phase, SMS will supply a 150-ton electric-arc furnace and a 150-ton ladle furnace with two treatment stations. The steel mill will be equipped with a gas cleaning plant, which will ensure compliance with the stringent environmental standards in place. In this first construction phase, the mill will produce 1.5 tons per year of hot strip, which will be directly processed into cold-roll strip and hot-dip galvanized sheet in downstream processing facilities. Among various other equipment/systems, SMS will also supply a continuous galvanizing line (including a Drever furnace), an ultra-fast cooling system for high-strength dual-phase grades and a batch annealing furnace.